Nanny Diaries rehashes an old story
Scarlett Johansson’s star must be fading these days if she’s slumming it in sub-par projects like The Nanny Diaries. This cheese-filled chick-flick is not a disaster by any means but still seems like a cash-in or contractual obligation for Woody Allen’s current muse co-star Laura Linney and especially Paul Giamatti. The film starts with a somewhat interesting narrative framework as Johansson voices an anthropological study of privileged Manhattanites. Looking at a world that is alien to her Annie the nanny (Johansson) is unsure what to do with herself after college and accidentally stumbles into the unpleasant world of caregiving. Annie begins her employment with wealthy socialite mother “Mrs. X” (Linney) who is in denial about her unfaithful husband’s (Giamatti) philandering and pays more attention to throwing benefits for Third World children than to her own son. Linney pulls off a strong performance but unfortunately (though not really surprisingly given this uninspired script) Giamatti gives a phoned-in barely there turn as the “always away on business” douche-bag dad. Johansson is her usual bland wooden self. The story’s subplots don’t add much either. There’s Annie’s failing friendship with Lynette played by Alicia Keys in a better-than-average singer-turned-actress cameo role and the flickering but obstacle-filled romance between our hero and "Harvard Hottie" Chris Evans formerly seen as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four franchise. It’s not all terrible — a scene where Annie and Harvard Hottie have an awkward interaction backed by the song "Stuck Between Stations" by The Hold Steady works particularly well. Unfortunately only a snippet of the song is heard. The story is satisfactory but somewhat stock and surprisingly enough The Nanny Diaries is devoid of intolerably sappy scenes. The film’s largest shortcoming is its unoriginal story line — an unprepared character takes on caregiving job for family ends up befriending child teaching parents a lesson and learning something about themselves in the process. It’s a story that’s been told countless times in such films as Uptown Girls About a Boy Adventures in Babysitting and to a lesser extent Hulk Hogan’s Mr. Nanny. The Nanny Diaries is a somewhat entertaining entry into the chick-flick canon though it won’t be remembered along with obvious classics of the genre like When Harry Met Sally or Four Weddings and a Funeral. It’s also not intelligent or original enough to be listed along with entries that rise above the genre’s clichés such as Before Sunrise/Sunset Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or more recently Knocked Up. It’s the kind of movie fated to a solid box-office run before ending up as a Sunday-afternoon guilty pleasure for bored housewives and guys in their early twenties with hangovers.
